How Buckling Down Came to Be~

I was sitting around, wondering what to blog about when I thought… hmmm a little peek behind the curtain of the great and not-so-powerful author mind. (Hey I resemble that remark!) Okay seriously moving on. There is no secret that my writing heart leans a bit farther towards the paranormal romance genre than any other, so to end up writing and contracting a contemporary western romance did take a few of my supporters by surprise. :p 

Seriously, I was neck deep in a paranormal vampire/shifter story and my brother-in-law (bless his heart) decided to inform me that it sounded like I was writing Underworld Part 3. Well if that didn’t just rub the wrong way and in all the wrong places. Nothing against the Underworld movies, as I am a huge fan, but it wasn’t what I was going for. Not into writing Fanfic myself, though I can attest there are some great pieces out there. (If you don’t want to take my word for it I encourage you to go check out my friend Mike’s stuff at Ad Astra.) Anyhow, getting off topic. 

Once the whole fanfic reference had run it’s course, I really couldn’t bring myself to continue on with that story. SO I decided that I would write something as a surprise, for my mother. Something I believed she would be more interested in. She reads paranormal, but it is not her favorite, and a contemporary western seemed to fit my mood at the time. My love and admiration for my mother helped breathe life into Sydney Hart, my heroine. My mother is a woman who has already experienced so much in her life, and there is this inner strength in her that I admire. It is that strength that fueled my imagination with Sydney. Levi… well it would seem that he just appeared in my head, larger than life and ridin’ a bull, with a little bit of a Paul Walker look to him. Okay, I am not going to apologize for fantasizing about Paul Walker. Slap me if you will but that boy is hot. No I did not recently watch a movie starring him prior to writing Buckling Down. He appeared, I wrote him. Hell who am I to argue with a hot cowboy?

I would love to say that writing this story was easy, but it would be a lie. Ask Rown, Betty, or Sally at TGOB and they will attest to this little fact. Sex scenes? Well we will leave that little tidbit of info for another post. I did however, enjoy the entire process, including the bitching and complaining, ripping my hair out, noticing a few new grey hairs, and the stress that comes along with the entire process. No I would not trade one bit of the experience for all the tea in china…but just maybe for a Levi McKenna I might. Don’t forget to check out the excerpt on Samhain’s site. 

Sláinte!